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Saturday, June 02, 2007

Saturday 6/2 Kaedra update

No new updates yet. She slept through the night and had a good sleep. It took her a long time to get to sleep because a little boy passed away in the room next to her and there was a lot going on because of that. Please keep his parents and family in your prayers as well.

Here is what is going on: The surgeon is concerned that the skin over the titanium rib is a. infected and b. very damaged. He is going to do exploratory surgery sometime tomorrow to see if his concerns are warranted. (He is waiting until tomorrow so that she will have antibiotics for 36-48 hours before surgery.) If either is true he is going to take out that titanium rib on Monday. We are still unsure about the ramifications of taking the rib out. Her doctor here is worried that she will not have enough support from just one titanium rib and that her chest wall will sag or collapse. He is also worried that without the rib to hold her lungs in, her lungs will pooch out the side again (like her first 10 months of life, before the ribs) and that will cause the paradoxical chest movement, or flail chest, that kept her on the vent full time as well as in critical condition. Furthermore, her organs (and heart) would not be protected, which is always a concern. If they do take the rib out, the surgeon said it would be several months before they would be able to replace it. They would have to wait for the skin to be completely healed and healthy again. If they don't take the rib out, they will just be cutting the bad skin out and trying to stitch it up over the rib. She doesn't have any muscle or fat over that area, though, so we still need prayer covering in that area. Michael has a list of questions to ask today and hopefully we will get some more answers. However, we will not know how she will react to the rib being taken out until they do that.

One other concern: we are unsure if they would let me in the ICU with Ethan at all. We have heard that they might not let any babies in the ICU. We don't know how long Kaedy will be up there and of course Michael can't stay up there indefinitely. (someone has to make the money around here ;-) We are trying to find out if they could possibly move her to the regular floor so I could go up there with Ethan. If not, I will have to wean him and find someone who can watch a baby while Michael is at work everyday. Michael's mom is just not able to do it and we are stretching her abilities by just watching the older two. Please keep that in prayer as well. I would much rather take him with me for many reasons.

The older girls are taking this pretty hard and are very worried. It's hard to see that anything is wrong when they last saw Kaedy running around and playing and hard to imagine all that can change in a blink of an eye.

6 comments:

bless your heart! I will pray that the hospital will work with you to meet the needs of both Ethan and Kaedra.. I will pray that Kaedra can keep her rib and her skin heals quickly.. and I will pray a hedge of protection over Ethan so RSV and the like cannot touch him.. and I will pray for peace for both you and Michael and the girls... So many needs but God cares about and has an answer for each one! The Walenciak's love you guys.

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